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The abnormal proliferation and neurogenesis of neural progenitor cells (NPCs) is usually associated with the pathophysiology of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). Mitochondrial stress is one of the most prominent features of AD and is thought to be involved in the impairment of the neurogenesis and proliferation of NPCs. Thus, restoring mitochondrial function by pharmaceutical intervention may alleviate disease-related defects in neurogenesis and is considered a potential therapeutic strategy for AD. In the present study, we found that the oral administration of PL201A, a designed analog of phenylpropanoids, which are a family of natural products with antiaging effects, promoted the neurogenesis and proliferation of NPCs and ameliorated cognitive impairment in a transgenic mouse model of AD. Furthermore, PL201A attenuated amyloid-β–induced mitochondrial stress and promoted NPC proliferation in vitro. Further mechanistic studies showed that PL201A restored the activation of AMP-regulated protein kinase–retinoblastoma signaling, which was suppressed by amyloid-β. Our findings suggest that PL201A may represent a promising regenerative therapeutic agent for cognitive decline in neurodegenerative diseases.

The characteristics of the dual-core photonic crystal fiber (PCF) sensor are studied using the finite element method (FEM), and the structure is improved according to the numerical simulation results. The results show that whether or not the four large air holes far away from the geometry center of the PCF are filled with analyte has no influence on the wavelength sensitivity of the sensor which means those holes can be replaced by small air holes. The wavelength sensitivity can be tuned by adjusting the sizes of the other large air holes which are as for liquid holes. The dynamic detection range of the refractive index (RI) is from 1.33 to 1.51. In particular, high linearity is obtained in the range of 1.44 to 1.51. The sensitivity is as high as 6021 nm/RIU when the liquid holes are the smallest. When liquid holes are tangential with the envelope of first layer air holes, the wavelength sensitivity is 4028 nm/RIU, and the coefficient of determination (R²) is 0.99822 when the RI of the analyte varies from 1.44 to 1.51 which shows that high sensitivity and good linearity are both obtained.

Baclofen is used clinically as a drug that treats spasticity, which is a syndrome characterized by excessive contraction of the muscles and hyperflexia in the central nervous system (CNS), by activating GABA(B) receptors (GABA(B)Rs). Baclofen was recently reported to desensitize chemokine receptors and to suppress inflammation through the activation of GABA(B)Rs. GABA(B)Rs are expressed in various immune cells, but the functions of these receptors in autoimmune diseases remain largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the effects of baclofen in murine collagen-induced arthritis (CIA). Oral administration of baclofen alleviated the clinical development of CIA, with a reduced number of IL-17-producing T helper 17 (T(H)17) cells. In addition, baclofen treatment suppressed dendritic cell (DC)-primed T(H)17 cell differentiation by reducing the production of IL-6 by DCs in vitro. Furthermore, the pharmacological and genetic blockade of GABA(B)Rs in DCs weakened the effects of baclofen, indicating that GABA(B)Rs are the molecular targets of baclofen on DCs. Thus, our findings revealed a potential role for baclofen in the treatment of CIA, as well as a previously unknown signaling pathway that regulates DC function.

Traditional information hiding algorithms cannot maintain a good balance of capacity, invisibility and robustness. In this paper, a novel blind colour image information hiding algorithm based on grey prediction and grey relational analysis in the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) domain is proposed. First, this algorithm compresses the secret image losslessly based on the improved grey prediction GM(1,1) (IGM) model. It then chooses the blocks of rich texture in the cover image as the embedding regions using Double-dimension Grey Relational Analysis (DGRA). Finally, it adaptively embeds the compressed secret bits stream into the DCT domain mid-frequency coefficients, which are decided by those blocks' Double-Dimension Grey Correlation Degree (DGCD) and Human Visual System (HVS). This method can ensure an adequate balance between invisibility, capacity and robustness. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is robust against JPEG compression (46.724 6 dB when the compression quality factor is 90%), Gaussian noise (45.531 3 dB when the parameter is (0,0.000 5)) etc., and it is a blind information hiding algorithm that can be extracted without an original carrier.

SUMMARY On the basis of grey system theory, an image information hiding algorithm is proposed in this paper. First, to choose the blocks of rich texture, a method based on two-dimensional grey relational analysis is designed; making use of the improved GM(1,1) prediction model, the secret image is compressed losslessly, and then scrambled by means of time-division multiplexing method in communication theory. Block discrete cosine transform is applied to the chosen blocks, and coefficients of mid frequencies are chosen as the embedded data, whereas the embedding intensity is determined on the basis of human visual system, and the embedding capacity of sub-blocks can be controlled by its two-dimensional grey relational grade adaptively. The experiment results show that the algorithm cannot only achieve satisfactory invisibility and robustness, but also improve the payload of the cover image, and meanwhile solve the problem that the small capacity of traditional algorithms in transform domain efficiently. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Quad-tree based Coding Unit structure in HEVC provides more motion compensation sizes to improve rate-distortion performance at the cost of greatly increased computational complexity. Different from other researches on fast algorithms, we develop an optimally complexity scalable multi-mode decision algorithm (OCSMD) for HEVC. There are two major contributions in this paper. The first one is a novel feature proposed to describe the relationship between MV field and CU depth. The second is that we build a cost-performance priority predicting model in frame level based on the feature with negligible overhead as well as no conflict with the standard. Our method may allocate computational resources to the MD of all the CUs in frame level under arbitrary complexity constraints, while obtaining nearly optimal coding performance. The experimental result shows that our algorithm can adjust complexity under varying computing capacity while achieving near-optimal R-D performance.

MicroRNA miR-326 regulates TH-17 differentiation and is associated with the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis Changsheng Du1,5, Chang Liu1,5, Jiuhong Kang1,2, Guixian Zhao3, Zhiqiang Ye4, Shichao Huang1, Zhenxin Li3, Zhiying Wu3 & Gang Pei1,2 Interleukin 17 (IL-17)-producing T helper cells (TH-17 cells) are increasingly recognized as key participants in various autoimmune diseases, including multiple sclerosis. Although sets of transcription factors and cytokines are known to regulate TH-17 differentiation, the role of noncoding RNA is poorly understood. Here we identify a TH-17 cell–associated microRNA, miR-326, whose expression was highly correlated with disease severity in patients with multiple sclerosis and mice with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). In vivo silencing of miR-326 resulted in fewer TH-17 cells and mild EAE, and its overexpression led to more TH-17 cells and severe EAE. We also found that miR-326 promoted TH-17 differentiation by targeting Ets-1, a negative regulator of TH-17 differentiation. Our data show a critical role for microRNA in TH-17 differentiation and the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis.